Yes, it’s another blog post about all the reasons why travel and living abroad is great. But it’s my intention to break it down even more. Many travel writers make travel out to be a glorified, wonderful thing (which it certainly can be), but it is also a challenge. It’s an education, in every sense of the word.
So, here’s what travel can really teach you that college can’t (well, at least, these are things it taught me):
About politics and economy: the world is more intertwined than you thought
What college teaches you
How to quote all the famous people who have studied your topic and their antagonists, regurgitate facts you’ve read in all the major and independent media sources, how to write a great theoretical essay about all of these issues. That history is a thing of the past that needs to be studied within an academic setting.
What travel teaches you
Rather, what travel puts directly in front of your face until you can’t ignore it any longer, is that there are people behind the politics and history. There are people who are affected by these huge, theoretical (political, historical, economic) systems in often devastating ways. And until you see how people every day, including yourself, are being affected, you’ll learn just how real all of those theories and histories are.
As an added tip, it’s always a good idea to read up on the history before you go, so you’re not ignorant of what has happened to the space you’re privileged enough to visit.
About art: art and craft is more than techniques you study in a classroom
What college teaches you
Craft is something you need to study and dedicate yourself to. You’re not legitimate unless you have a Master of Fine Arts.
What travel teaches you
Art is a way for a culture and its peoples to express themselves, no matter the degree you have. Craft is a matter of digesting what it is the senses are consuming.
Street art in Georgetown on Penang Island, Malaysia
Travel is a sensory experience. It heightens the way you see, smell, taste, and feel everyday things. Craft is a matter of paying attention to those experiences and putting them into poetry, into a painting, a song, a story, or a photo. Travel keeps you in touch with these often overlooked intricacies of life, supplying you with endless inspiration.
About psychology: interpersonal communications are about more than what you say
What college teaches you
The more articulate you can make a complicated idea sound in your first language means you are a good communicator.
What travel teaches you
Communication is so much more nuanced. Speaking louder thinking that the person you’re speaking to will understand you better? Not going to happen. You begin to learn that communicating means much more than the language you use. It’s the awareness of your body while you’re speaking. It’s what’s considered polite and what’s considered rude or an invitation to flirt.
Yes, I can read an article about nonverbal cues. But as soon as an old man in a cafe buys me my coffee because I’ve said “hola” to him and smiled, I will not have learned that saying hello and smiling is a nonverbal cue inviting a man to passively approach me.
About science: health is subjective
What college teaches you
Got a headache? There’s a pill for that. Feeling tired? There’s a pill for that. Have a disease or pre-existing condition? There’s an operation, chemicals, and more pills for that. Need a new diet? Become a vegan. Not fit enough? Train for a marathon.
What travel teaches you
There are other ways to remedy a health issue. At the primary school I teach at in Spain, when a child complains of a stomach ache, they’re given chamomile tea. Chamomile is naturally anti-inflammatory. Warm-water or tea allows the body to digest more easily. In Thailand, Thai massage is a regular part of health maintenance, not a luxury. It stimulates the circulation system, calms the nervous system, and keeps your muscles and joints well-oiled, so to speak.
We’ve come to think, at least in the West, that health is a one-size-fits-all sort of matter. What I’ve learned while traveling is that there are many ways to look at health. It’s nearly impossible to find a dish that’s purely vegetarian, let alone vegan, here in Spain. That’s not to say that they don’t agree on the principals of it, it’s just not considered healthy to remove meat entirely from your diet.
Angkor Wat is overrun by tourists every year
About the self: your place in the world is part of something much bigger
What college teaches you
You are as good as your degree. You are skilled in what you’ve learned and this is the path you’ll take. If you follow it, you’ll be successful.
What travel teaches you
You are a small part of a grand system of things. Travel challenges everything you’ve ever been taught, told or thought you learned. It challenges the very idea of what you think success is. Depending on where you go, you’ll see what poverty is, what privilege is, what class is.
Travel is one of the few things that will allow you to see a reflection of yourself and the culture you come from. When you’re the foreigner, you often represent the culture and country that you come from. How do people perceive you because of this? How do you respond to that?
Travel, if it’s by choice (which, for many, it’s not), is at once a privilege and a humbling experience. It’s also full of adventure and can, many times, be incredibly boring. But when you go home, it becomes impossible to forget what you’ve seen and learned.
When you go home, surrounded by your photos and memories of the place you’ve just experienced, it then becomes impossible to contemplate all the things you still have yet to learn.
